Frijoles Fire Update, 8/24, 10:15 am
I have received definitive word from the Forest Service. Per the updated closure map from 8/16, Skyline Trail (Trail 251) is closed where it overlaps with the closure boundary, and wherever it lies within the closure area—including the 0.9-mile section highlighted on the SF2T map below.
Neither the standard route through this closure nor the Lake Peak / Tesuque Peak alternate can be used at this time. So the Santa Fe to Taos Trail cannot be completed in its entirety at this time.
The closure is scheduled to remain in effect until 8 a.m. on September 15, unless it is rescinded or amended earlier.
Do not enter the closed area. “Entering a closed area is a federal violation punishable as a Class B misdemeanor. Penalties include a fine of up to $5,000 for individuals (up to $10,000 for organizations), up to six months in prison, or both.“
8/16 Official Forest Service closure map:
Zoomed in section of the same map that’s relevant to the SF2T standard route and the Lake Peak Alternate:
👉 THIS IS THE DIRECT LINK TO THE WILDLAND FIRE FIGHTER FOUNDATION DONATION PAGE
For hikers who still want to complete open portions of the SF2T, my best suggested two-part plan is:
1) Do Section 1 (Santa Fe Plaza to the Santa Fe Ski Basin). Then take the free Blue Bus back down to Santa Fe, or leave a car at the Santa Fe Ski Basin. Parking is free, and vehicles may be left there for up to four days.
2) After you’ve done section 1, get yourself over to the Cowles Ponds area of the Pecos Wilderness. Once you’re in Pecos you have three options:
- Go in from Cowles Ponds up Winsor Ridge Trail (271) towards Stewart Lake. There is free parking at two medium-sized parking lots next to Cowles Ponds. You can park here for free, but leaving your car here more than a week to ten days becomes dicey. The small lot near Cowles Ponds fits about 8-10 cars, maximum. The larger lot could fit up to 25 cars, but it typically gets filled up by very large horse trailers and the trucks that pull them. We are tipping into the time of year when the ranchers come to collect their cattle from the high country, so the parking lot may be extra full. It’s also going to be extra full because the ranchers typically use Jack’s Creek Horse Camp as their base camp, and Jack’s Creek and all of its facilities are currently closed for maintenance. So parking in Cowles is going to be particularly tight this year.
If you can secure a parking space at Cowles, take Winsor Ridge Trail (271) up towards Stewart Lake. When you reach Skyline Trail, about 6 miles up, you’ll have joined the route of the SF2T. This is a really nice hike, especially in the fall. Either backtrack SOBO a bit to see Lake Katherine, or stay at Stewart Lake, or go wherever you decide to go. - Take Winsor (254) from the Winsor Trailhead that is 1.2 miles west down the road near Cowles Ponds. You’ll pass Winsor Creek Summer Homes between Cowles Ponds and the Winsor (254) trailhead. Join the SF2T route at the north intersection of Skyline Trail and Winsor Trail, right at Winsor Creek. Climb up to Lake Katherine from this junction.
- Go up Holy Ghost Trail (283) from Holy Ghost Campground and join the route of the SF2T right at Winsor Creek. Holy Ghost Campground has a small parking lot for hikers, or you can park closer to the trailhead if you get a campsite. Stays are permitted for up to two weeks.
The closure affects 5.7 miles—about 4.4%—of the SF2T route, but that short overlap breaks the continuous route. The closed segment begins at the Winsor Trailhead at the Santa Fe Ski Basin and extends to the top of the switchbacks south of Lake Katherine. It includes the section of Skyline Trail used by the Lake Peak / Tesuque Peak alternate. Do not enter these closed areas, use closed trail segments, or attempt to bypass the closure by going off trail while it remains in effect.
Want to get the 2026 SF2T enhanced GPX file for free?
- Take Leave No Trace’s free 101 online course. Takes 30 minutes to complete.
- Send us the PDF of your completion certificate. (contact@santafetotaos.org)
- We’ll send you a coupon code to get the GPX file for free. You’ll also get a tutorial for how to import it into major navigation apps.
Take the course, get the file.
Have a better experience and help the trail. 🙌
If you come to the Santa Fe to Taos Trail, please come as a steward.
We are not here just to pass through and take from this place, or any place. We are here to care for it, all of it: the lands and waters and wildlife, the communities connected to them, and the trail infrastructure that makes hikes possible.
Thru-hiking is not inherently extractive, but it can become extractive when hikers increase the wear and tear on all the things that make their journey possible without contributing to their care.
That is not said to make anyone feel bad or guilty. It is not necessarily to say, “don’t come here.”
It is said because hikers have responsibilities. We all do.
It is time for more hikers to shift from speeding through and checking trails off their lists to caring for the places, people, and systems that make their journeys possible. Many already do this.
The simplest way to make this shift is to start saying “thank you” more often.
Start saying it when and how you might not have before. Like to the ground you slept on, or the trees you hung your hammock from. To the breeze that cools you, and the sun that warms you. To the water sources that sustain you.
Just saying “thank you” changes the interaction. It changes us, too.
Great things come from small beginnings.
The Santa Fe to Taos Trail is undergoing a massive increase in traffic. We will see 10x as many hikers as last year – probably more hikers than do the Colorado Trail every year, and two to three times as many hikers as do the Continental Divide Trail every year.
The Santa Fe to Taos Trail goes from the Santa Fe Plaza to Taos Plaza over the Sangre de Cristo Mountains of northern New Mexico. It is 132 miles long, spans five counties – Santa Fe, San Miguel, Mora, Rio Arriba, and Taos – and crosses the Santa Fe National Forest, The Pecos Wilderness, and Carson National Forest. The full route has 35,000 feet of cumulative ascent and descent, as both plazas are at 7,000 feet elevation.
The route is over a decade in the making, scouted and refined by Pam Neely beginning around 2014, and then first completed as a thru-hike in 2018. It has been refined several times to optimize safety and access to water. It is still being refined and expanded.
Total registered hikers (as of June 19, 2026)
- 207 registered groups
- 404 registered people
- Average group size: 1.95 people
New Mexico hikers (June 19, 2026 data here and below)
- 65 groups
- 126 registered people
- 32.0% of groups
- 31.8% of people
Out-of-state U.S. hikers
- 138 groups
- 270 registered people
- 68.0% of groups
- 68.2% of people
Top states after New Mexico by groups
- Texas: 33 groups (16.3% of groups), 56 people (14.1% of people)
- Colorado: 30 groups (14.8% of groups), 54 people (13.6% of people)
- Arizona: 16 groups (7.9% of groups), 41 people (10.4% of people)
- California: 15 groups (7.4% of groups), 31 people (7.8% of people)
International hikers
- Australia: 4 people
- Mexico: 2 people
- Netherlands: 1 person
Elevation profile of the 2026 route of the Santa Fe to Taos Trail
Maps and route
See the route page and individual section pages for details on the route and turn-by-turn directions for the route. (6/22/26: Route page is old info and needs an update)
Presentation at the Los Alamos Mountaineers monthly meeting at the Los Alamos Nature Center Planetarium, Tuesday, October 28th
Huge thanks to the Mountaineers and the Nature Center for this opportunity.
Plaza to Plaza in 52 photographs
Each photograph is from one of the 50 subsections that make up the route.
